(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the design and assembly of a firefighter's protective trousers wherein the aforesaid design and consequent assembly eliminate the existence of a trouser leg inseam from the knee region to the cuff of the pant leg.
(b) Description of Prior Art
Firefighter turnout pants usually consist of three or more discrete layers of heat and flame resistant materials, normally:
1. the outer shell which provides protection against flame, heat, scrapes, puncture and cuts; PA0 2. the moisture barrier, consisting of substrate and moisture barrier film or coating, which has as its principal purpose the prevention of penetration of liquid water; PA0 3. the thermal barrier, most often consisting of a thermal insulating material and lining fabric, whose principal function is to provide insulation against heat transfer. PA0 1. The outer shell material, which is usually made with Nomex.RTM., Kevlar.RTM. or similar fire resistant synthetic yarns is stiffer and more abrasive than traditional textile fabrics. In general, the higher the percentage of high tenacity yarn, e.g. Kevlar.RTM., in the outer shell, the more severe is the problem of abrasion. PA0 2. The pant consists of three or more layers thereby adding to the stiffiess of the garment and its outer shell. PA0 3. The firefighter is wearing rubber or leather, calf-high or knee-high, boots under the pant; these boots present a semi-rigid surface that prevents the seam from retreating from any abrasive surface. PA0 4. The national standards for firefighter turnout pants mandate that each pant leg be encircled between the knee and the cuff by a band of reflective tape whose purpose is to increase firefighter visibility and safety. The ends of the band of reflective tape are normally tucked and sewn into the inseam. However, the reflective tape has a relatively hard surface with the result that the seaming thread cannot imbed itself into the surface of the tape the way it might into the surface of a fabric. As a result, the inseam thread is particularly vulnerable to abrasion where it passes over this circumferential band of reflective tape. PA0 5. An ensemble of firefighter pants and boots is bulky and cumbersome with the result that there is considerably more rubbing of the inseam of firefighter pants than there is with more conventional pants.
Firefighter pants are normally constructed in either of two ways. In one, the pant outer shell consists of four main panels: one left front panel, one left rear panel, one right front panel, one right rear panel. The panels are joined by an outseam running from the cuff to the waist band, by an inseam running from the cuff to the crotch, by a seat seam and by a crotch seam and fly of the pant. In the other, the pant outer shell is comprised of two main panels: essentially one left cylinder and one right cylinder. Each cylinder is closed by either an outseam or an inseam and joined to the other cylinder by a seat seam and a crotch seam and fly of the pant. (The moisture barrier and thermal barrier construction may or may not be identical to that of the outer shell.)
The four-panel method of construction is generally considered to offer superior comfort and fit to the two-panel. However, the four-panel system, as well as the two-panel system with inseam, has an inseam which is subject to abrasion as the inside of the pant legs rub together when the pants are worn. The seam abrasion, or more particularly seam thread abrasion, is exacerbated by several factors:
In one possible configuration of the two-panel method of constructing a firefighter pant there is no inseam to be subject to abrasion; there are only outseams. However, the fit and comfort disadvantages in the thigh and lower torso regions of the wearer of a two-panel system lead most users to prefer a four-panel system in spite of the problem with inseam abrasion. And for the two-panel method with an inseam instead of an outseam, the problem of inseam abrasion would be similar to that experienced with a four-panel design.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,242 describes a firefighter's pants wherein the knee joint sections include a bellow. The stated purpose of this design is to increase protection, flexion range and comfort. This design does not simplify the design nor reduce the possibility of seam failure; on the contrary, by introducing an additional section of material, the number of seams exposed to abrasion and failure is increased.
Furthermore, it envisages turnout pants with each pant leg constructed from a single piece of material rolled into a cylindrical shape and joined by an outseam but with a knee bellow and rectangular section completely encircling the knee joint and thereby sectioning the pant leg into a top section, a knee bellow section, and a bottom section.
Alternatively, it allows for a pant leg having a front panel and a back panel joined together with an outseam and an inseam and with the knee joint section either completely encircling the knee area, thereby sectioning the pant leg into two upper panels and two lower panels connected by the knee joint section, or sectioning only the front panel, thereby creating one continuous back leg panel and two front leg panel, the latter being joined by the knee joint section. In this embodiment there is still a continuous inseam from waist to cuff.
It does not envisage a pant with a front panel and back panel above the knee--joined by an outseam and an inseam--and a single cylindrical piece of material below the knee joined only with an outseam.
U.S. Pat No. 269,479 describes pants in which the portion of the pant leg from the knee down is removable thereby permitting the pants to be worn either as knee breeches or long pants.
Similarly U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,766,613 and 5,153,944 describe trousers which are convertible from long to short modes of wear via removable lower sections.